Anyone or any business planning to carry out any work or activity that affects the normal flow or operation of the road, footpath or berm within the road reserve/corridor must apply for a permit known as a Corridor Access Request (CAR), formerly a Road Opening Notice (RON) and receive a work access permit (WAP) permitting the activity.
CAR’s ensure that all work is done safely and complies with the national code of practice.
What is a Road Reserve/Corridor?
A road reserve is defined as the area of land between legal boundaries, usually fence-line to fence-line and including any safety run-off areas, which is dedicated to allow the passage of road users.
The road reserve also includes air space of six metres directly above the road surface.
Corridor Access Requests are undertaken via the beforeUdig or Submitica website.
Underground Service Plans
beforeUdig
Ensure that before any excavations are undertaken a beforeUdig inquiry is made to check for locations of any underground services. This is a web-based service that you or your contractor use to get plans and information emailed out to you.
Please note: The beforeUdig service has no information on council's buried water, wastewater or stormwater assets. Our mapping tools shows the location of buried council assets.
Submitica
If you want to close a road, restrict access to a road or to dig under a road, you need to ask the permission of the road owner before you can do this. See the Submitica website.
A person wanting to apply for a Corridor Access Request first needs to become a registered user. It is free to register on these websites.
This also provides the mechanism for you to make a Corridor Access Request and provide us with a Traffic Management Plan to protect your site, contractors, and the public during operations.
A Corridor Access Request is required for, but not limited to, the following activities:
- Trenching works
- Footpaths and entranceways
- Work within the berm or shoulder of the road, and
- Tree work, scaffolding and crane work.
- Any activity that will alter or cause to be altered the surface of any part of the road reserve, including but not limited to excavating, drilling, resurfacing;
- The placement of any pipe, duct, pole, cabinet or other structure below, on or above the road reserve;
- A new vehicle crossing.
There are other events or activities in the road that don't require a CAR and WAP but still require a Traffic Management Plan (TMP), see information below:
- Work on the shoulder or grass verge only
- Inspections
- Single private excavations in the grass berm only, that are less than three (3) square metres or less than six (6) linear metres
- Non-excavation activities on Low Volume, Level 1 and Level 2 roads if carrying out that activity does not affect the normal use of the footpath or carriageway.
Approval, cost and payment
Submitting an application is not an authority to start work, unless it is an emergency. You must wait until you receive your approved Work Access Permit (WAP) by email. Applications must be made at least 15 working days before work starts.
Fees for this can be found in the current years Fees and Charges.
National code of practice
The National Code of Practice for Utility Operators' Access to Transport Corridors (pdf 3.2MB) defines the set of standards for working in the road and the Corridor Access Request (CAR) processes.
The Code is mandatory under the Utilities Access Act 2010 and applies to all works carried out in the road corridor, whether the work is for or by a utility, local government, commercial organisation or private individual(s).